Mega-Powerful Nitrate and Phosphate Remover Replaces Skimmer, Refugium, Everything

[jnarowe]

Orp is oxygen redox potential and is NOT a good way to measure water quality anyways. There is much more to orp and as far as this hobby is concerned its really only good for ozone device control.

Don

True to some extent, but I know when I am sitting in my office and I see the ORP drop below 300, I need to change out my filter pads!

 

[SantaMonica]

Wow. There's so much to post that I don't know which should be first. Today I'll cover max inputs that's I've been able to achieve.

I've been experimenting with how much I can feed my 90g, with only my 144 square inch turf screen doing the filtering. I'd add more food for a few days, then the Salifert N test would start showing a tiny bit of pink (about a .2 reading). Then I'd cut the food in half, until the reading went clear (zero N measured). Interestingly, P never increased. Ever. Only N. So after a few tries, here's the max I've been able feed the tank while just barely getting an N increase:


Max Feeding:

Liquid Life Marine Plankton with Cyclopeeze: 3 pumps a day
Liquid Life Bio Plankton (live phyto): 2 pumps a day
Frozone mysis: 2 cubes a day, unwashed, thawed in 4 oz tap water.
Silversides: 1 per week (for the eel)


Tank:

90 Display, BB
20 Sump
150 pounds LR
60 inches fish
40 corals, all softie and lps
6000 gph circulation
Carbon now used once a month for allelpathics


I'm now settling in on a lesser amount:

1 pump phyto
1-2 pumps plankton
2 cubes mysis, unwashed, thawed in 4 oz tap water.
Silversides: 1 per week (for the eel)

 

[freetareef]

santa... the next time you scrape your ats you should mail me your algae so i can smear my screen.
This weekend i'm going to have the over flow on my tank feed my ats so i'll get about 10 times more flow over it. just have a tiny brown shade on one little spot right now...

 

[SantaMonica]

Freeta did you say thos CFL's were 150 equivalent? As for rubbing algae, you can actually do it yourself just the same, since a new screen starts out with green hair or brown diatoms anyway. Just fine any algae in your tank and use that. Did you sandpaper your screen first?

 

[jnarowe]

I am going to follow this closely and have high hopes that you will report clean data. My interest lies in what appears to be a studied attempt to pollute your system by feeding:

Liquid Life Marine Plankton with Cyclopeeze: 3 pumps a day
Liquid Life Bio Plankton (live phyto): 2 pumps a day
Frozone mysis: 2 cubes a day, unwashed, thawed in 4 oz tap water.


If the turf filter can pull those nutrients out, I will be quite impressed. Of course, for my system I would need 1,200 sq inches of screen!

 

[SantaMonica]

Yes the turf can just barely keep up with the amounts you posted. Starts getting a tiny amount of pink (Salifert) after a few days. When I cut down a bit to the other amounts I posted, it goes back down to clear.

 

[jnarowe]

Yeah, I see that footnote above...I wouldn't put any of those in my tank at all, so I will be very intrigued to see your long-term results.

 

[SantaMonica]

I'd prefer to culture and drip some phyto myself, but I haven't studied that yet, so the frozen will have to do. Before the turf, I too had to stop using both frozen products because my glass would need cleaning the next day.

 

[freetareef]

yes i sanded my screen. yes my bulbs are 150 equivalent. my screen is getting brown now... i will post picks and no3 and p04 test results tomorrow too.

 

[SantaMonica]

Ahh very cool. You're getting diatoms to start. They will be followed up by green hair.

 

[SantaMonica]

Here is the screen from the person who bought pre-grown turf from Inland Aquatics, after growing on the tank for one week, and then after cleaning:

 

[mattleycrue76]

I love this thread. Thank you Santa Monica for this detailed How To. Alot of people make crazy claims on various forums but few actually follow up with pics and useful dialogue. I think I will be trying this in the near future. This is why I love the internet! Thanks for the great contribution

 

[SantaMonica]

Glad you dig it. Most of us would love to see pics of your version too.

 

[SantaMonica]

Here's a rather ingenious screen-in-a-trashcan that someone just built. This type of design will eliminate evaporation (and cooling), if that's what you want. One thing I might change would be the distance of the bulb to the screen; it should be so close that it almost touches it. In all the builds I've seen so far, the ones that have slow growth always have the bulb too far away, or too small a wattage.

 

[daytonaconnecti]

so in putting togearther a rig like this,how do you know how big of setup you need for your tank? iam not sure how big my tank is if you can tell me thanks, here are som earlier pics when i first started View attachment 29096

View attachment 29097

iam try ing to do a setup like this for this tank,need to know how many gal it is, its shape like a diamond, its 32in across at it widest part,25in front to back, and 24 3/4 tall, anyone have an idea, i was thinking close to 70 gal, i dont know,i need to get parts togeather, like screen size, pumps bucket or other, ect... View attachment 29217

View attachment 29218

 

[freetareef]

daytona,
if you go to your local fish store and get a tank devider it will work. i think the smallest one are for 20 gallon tanks and they are 12x15, will be more then enough if you use both sides.

 

[freetareef]

and they were $8 at mine.

 

[freetareef]

i'm going to lowes right now and i'm going to get some pvc to make my overflow flow over my screen. i'll post some revision pics.

 

[freetareef]

ats flow revision.

i went to lowes and grabed some pvc fittings and set up my overflow to flow over my screen. here it is.

 

[freetareef]

my readings are still the same. i'm not doing any wc so i can see the true results.